[alsa-devel] Help requested: new HSS1394 MIDI back-end

[Clemens Ladisch]

Sean M. Pappalardo - D.J. Pegasus wrote:
> On 05/30/2012 06:51 AM, Clemens Ladisch wrote:
>> Sean M. Pappalardo - D.J. Pegasus wrote:
>>> four-byte platter messages that start with
>>> 0xF9 and the remaining three can range from 0x00 to 0xFF.
>>
>> This is not MIDI. Into what MIDI messages should
>> the driver convert this?
>
> It shouldn't convert it at all. Just deliver it as-is in a single
> four-byte message, if possible.

The problem is the communication between the driver and userspace;
_that_ must be valid MIDI.

> 0xF9 is a valid, if undefined, MIDI status.

Undefined means invalid.  Furthermore, data bytes must not have the
eighth bit set.

> I will also need the ability to use the HSS1394 SendUserControl
> function to set the device's timers, and that is definitely not MIDI
> at all.
> I wonder if it would be a good idea to define a special SYSEX message
> that the SCS1x driver would interpret and convert to a call to that
> function?

As it happens, the actual SysEx commands use the wrong manufacturer ID
("00 01 02" is Crystal Semiconductor); I could just use the real ID
(Stanton is "00 01 60") to escape non-MIDI HSS1394 messages.  Let's add
"HSS" to identify this, and to allow the full byte range, each HSS1394
byte is split into two nibbles.  So:

00 F9 xx yy zz -> F0 00 01 60 48 53 53 00 00 0F 09 0x 0x 0y 0y 0z 0z F7
13 xx yy zz    <- F0 00 01 60 48 53 53 01 03 0x 0x 0y 0y 0z 0z F7
14 xx yy zz    <- F0 00 01 60 48 53 53 01 04 0x 0x 0y 0y 0z 0z F7
(0x13 = 0x10 + 3 = kUserTagBase + uUserTag)


Regards,
Clemens